SPRINTS - Letter to Self

Garage Rock/Post-Punk – Released January 5, 2024 – 11 songs, 39 mins

LUNDI

They say we’re good for an up and comer. TSR thrash into 2024 with a ripping garage punk offering from Irish outfit SPRINTS. Polished and powerful, Letter to Self feels like a veteran of their craft, making it all the more impressive of a debut record.  

Existential dread and general malaise of day to day life fill SPRINTS debut, topics a majority of people deal with or at the very least understand. ‘When am I going to be happy? Is anybody happy?’ questions lead singer and songwriter, Karla Chubb. Given free rein by her bandmates to write on any subject she feels worth screaming about results in insightful lyrics on misogyny in the music industry, frustration with the world, and a complete rage towards the red flags of modern society. But that aggression never feels like a band who want to burn everything down exactly, but more so find healing in developing and delivering their art. Letter to Self represents the internal struggle and spiral many suffer from but rather than pin those feelings down deep, the band display their scars, quirks, and feelings like badges of honour. 

Those feelings of discontent are no doubt bubbling at the overall musical surface too with Letter to Self being the latest in a growing line of examples of bands and artists pushing the lyrical envelope. Since the turn of the century music could be argued to have lost its way as a tool in forgetting the massive pile of issues surrounding us but a recent surge of artists summoning the greats of yesteryear want music to more often make you feel and act, not forget. That mindset never went away fully for sure but as the drumbeat of society grows louder with cries for change now it almost feels like a near necessity for artists to use their platform with purpose. Timing couldn’t be better for SPRINTS with this movement and Chubb’s vocal ferocity that ranges from grumbling to shrieking and every bit in between, is the perfect method of delivery for this much needed musical shift. 

Chubb certainly made it difficult to get to this point with her songwriting prowess and emotional display but the musical makeup and sound structures of Letter to Self are certainly not dragging behind as it backs the lyrical output and record concepts hand in glove. Slide riffs, rhythmic guitar bands, slick solos, and haunting bass and drum beats fill the speakers with sounds reminiscent of historically great Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtracks. The build ups, the payoffs, and every transition feels purposeful and precise. And while on the surface you could drop this album in the punk and grunge eras of the 80’s and 90’s doing so would be a disservice to a band that is helping revitalize the return of guitar driven music to the forefront. It’s a tried formula with an injection of modernity. A discomforting and energetic experience. 

SPRINTS Letter to Self is musically and self inspiring. Cathartic. Designed directly for them, indirectly for me or you. A modern punk record that is supremely written and delivered from the first note and lyric. What a way to start the musical journey of 2024. 

Overall Rating: 8.4/10

Favourite Song: Letter to Self

REID

In an incredibly diverse and fruitful musical landscape, TSR pride ourselves on finding the good stuff. Whether it’s the established stars, those on the rise or the diamonds in the rough - we want the best for ourselves and our followers. As the years pass and we uncover more new music, it’s rewarding to recognize an increased percentage of artists on festival lineups. This was brought up by Lundi recently in the group chat and is an undeniable step forward in our collective knowledge of today’s scene. Big font or small, they’re performing for a reason. Which brings me to our first review of a 2024 album. SPRINTS are a rock band from Ireland who formed in 2019. (That was like, last year… right?) Lead singer, and songwriter, Karla Chubb, leads the foursome with their debut album, Letter to Self. These guys are so fresh it’s difficult to find information on them. Will they be the next group to burst on the scene and on festival posters in 2025?

First impressions die hard and for a band looking to make one, SPRINTS hit it out of the park with their opening song choices Ticking, Heavy and Cathedral. They have a similar structure with a slow start and gradual build before proceeding to throw gas on the fire in an eruption of hard rock bliss. I think it’s fair to call it their go-to style as it appears again later in flashes and full fledged on Up and Comer.

This crowd pleasing, climax-like technique is an excellent way to showcase the band’s talents. Let’s start with Karla. I don’t think there’s any doubt she will be a star. Her vocal range is impressive as she can sing softly or elevate it to a wailing scream and everything in between. Each note is sung with passion and raising her game to match her bandmates’ intensity takes the experience to another level. On guitar, Colm O’Reilly has the creative freedom to strum lightly, mix in shrieking soundscapes or bang out sweet riffs and fiery solos. He also finds moments to go quiet, leaving Sam McCann and Jack Callan on bass and drums to take the spotlight and run with it adding another layer to their sound. Collectively, their chemistry is excellent. While the wow-factor of these songs will grab your attention, they offer more in the forty minute runtime with progressive songs like Shaking Their Hands and Literary Mind, with the latter landing as my current favourite.

One flaw on Letter to Self is falling back on repetitive lyrics. Now first off, let me say that some of the greatest rock songs ever written have phrases sung over and over - let’s take Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine for example. On an individual, song by song basis, it’s not an issue. But Karla leans on two to three phrases in many of the songs and it’s impossible to ignore once noticed. ‘Do you ever feel like the room is heavy’ and ‘And I can’t sleep’ are repeated six and eight times respectively on Heavy. ‘I’m shaking their hands’ is sung eleven times and ‘Up and comer’ a whopping seventeen times in those titular tracks. These are just a few examples of a trend I’d like to see creative improvement on in their next work. The positive thing? They’re just getting started.

SPRINTS will be the next group in a growing list of artists reviewed by TSR to debut or rise on festival lineups. Their style is meant for the live show spotlight. Touring this record is one thing. Where they take it from there is just as exciting.

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

Favourite Song: Literary Mind

ROZ

Life is all about balance, and we believe that just as much here at Too Sweet Reviews. That’s why this week, we pivot from the off-beat hip hop stylings of billy woods and charge full speed into the rock world with SPRINTS and their debut studio album Letter to Self. This band has been described as alternative, post-punk, and garage rock; however you want to slice it, the Dublin 4-piece is this weeks TSR review.

From the first listen it goes without saying that Letter to Self is an anxiety-inducing rollercoaster. With the omission of many of the technical aspects of a production that I typically fawn over, I instead focus my attention onto the overall mood and atmosphere that Karla Chubb and her colleagues are attempting to generate. The near-constant droning noise of the amp fuzz, the grating fretboard slides up and down the neck of the guitar – it all comes together to create a general uneasiness that grabs hold of my senses. Soon I find myself completely immersed in the albums structure, a structure that ebbs and flows with an almost percussive force as guitars and drums go from an eery quiet to a sudden crashing and thrashing, time and time again. Letter to Self knows exactly what it’s doing, and it’s doing it very well.

“Do you ever feel like the room is Heavy?” Chubb asks rhetorically. In the context of the entire album, heavy is an understatement. The discordant fret-slide kicks in as band members O’Reilly and the McCann’s show off their talents, alongside the lead singer herself. On Adore Adore Adore Chubb continues to vent out her anger over equally angry drumming and guitar chord chugging, themselves running perfectly in parallel with her performance as she continues to scoff at her metaphorical foe. On Shadow of a Doubt, somber reflections over the singers past ideations and self doubt carry through a cracking voice and get coupled with the simple plucking of a guitars strings. A drum kicks in ever so slightly, ramping up further and further into an eventual mid-song, climactic explosion of sound. In my head canon, this would be a standout moment in their live show — in fact, this entire album was tailor made for the live show experience, I’m sure of it.

Time and time again, Letter to Self likes to remind the listener that it can go from dark and brooding to full on shrieking at the drop of a hat. A Wreck (A Mess) speeds up as time goes on like a carnival ride would, going faster and faster until your head starts spinning. “Is everyone a wreck? Is everyone stressed?” Chubb asks, at which point I nod in agreement. The world is only becoming a shittier place, which is why these albums are even getting made in the first place. Sad indeed, but hardly a new concept. All techniques described so far come to a head on Up and Comer, coincidentally starting itself off with an up-and-down glide on the fretboard of a guitar. The band explodes once again at the one-minute mark before going back to the up-and-down, oscillating rhythm from before. I think to myself after a few complete listens that while this album may be be a little too rough around the edges as a whole, it’s that same exact texture that give it that freshman charm.

SPRINTS debut studio album, Letter to Self, pumps fresh blood into the garage rock scene and jump starts the genre for 2024. No small task for a young band whose beginnings took place in… 2019?! Promising prospects indeed.

Overall Rating: 7.9/10

Favourite Song: Shadow of a Doubt